The Invitation

Rating:
Summary: Poetic Seduction to Grow more into You
Review: A special lady capable of using beautiful poetic language while still keeping an eye for the mundane. As in the book itself the ordinary life and the efforts to become more spiritual are entwined. This seduces the reader to find the spiritual in the mundane and vice versa. I have read this book in one breath and enjoyed it very much. Even though I expected it to be a 'typical womens book' it is not. Maybe even more attractive to men due to the mixture of the temporal and the spiritual. Fully in life and all about that which is beyond the obvious. A good read that leaves its message lingering in the mind... as an invitation.

Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, UPLIFTING BOOK
Review: A wonderful book, authentic and realistic, it is very down-to-earth-spiritually. Oriah is an expressive, elegant writer.

Rating:
Summary: A must read book.
Review: For those of us who need to take stock of where we are and where we are going, this is a must read. The Invitation will speak to your soul and strum your heart. The exercises are great. Keep it by your bedside to read over again.

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual practice in the real world.
Review: Here is a book worth reading and re-reading from time to time. The Invitation is the antithesis of the all-too-common, overly simplified self-help books that teach in cliches and promise more than they can possibly deliver. Don't be fooled by her name --- Oriah is a real person living in the real world, with a goal of being the best person she can be. And this book is an honest, intimate sharing of her efforts --- triumphs and failings included.

I find it interesting that the negative reviews of The Invitation are written with what seems to me to be so much anger, fear and even hatred. These reviewers frequently site their fears of Oriah's misguided values, but they have no problem investing their energy into going beyond reviewing a book to personally attacking a person they have never met.

Rating:
Summary: Like Manna from Heaven for the Lost and Wandering Soul
Review: I first ran across the poem, "The Invitaion" on the Internet, then after I couldn't sleep for thinking of it, tracked down the book. I was even more blown away after reading it. So much so that I read it, went back and highlighted portions that had a great impact on me, then, read it a third time, going back again and again to write excerpts in my journal for everyday reflection. This book gave me the courage to get up and keep at it, after a very painful time in my life. Her message is so simple, yet so hard to do, but, has such incredible rewards.... Open yourself up to life, to all of it, the good and the ugly, no matter how vulnerable you may feel, because you can't truly appreciate the sweetness of life and all that it has to offer, unless you dare to have the courage to lay yourself, your deepest part of your soul bare, then began again from there. Until you allow yourself to do that, as she says, everything is just superficial. She teaches you how to LIVE life, good/bad/ whatever, all the way down to the marrow of your bones. A true gift to the human spirit.

Rating:
Summary: Appealing for the amoral-doesn't deserve even one star
Review: I purchased this book, assuming I would find it uplifting and enlightening. What a mistake that was! I actually took it back to the store because I refused to let the author have one cent of my money.

Dreamer's writing would appeal to anyone looking for rationalization of bad behavior. When I read the chapter with regard to commitment, I could not believe that she actually condoned a husband dumping his wife after her stroke.

What was worse was that that Dreamer seemed to find a correlation between her own abusive first marriage and this man's situation in his second marriage. Since when does falling ill constitute constitute the same reason to dissolve a marriage as abuse? What kind of person comes with that? Perhaps her first husband hit her on the head and damaged her sense of decency.

When the only person with sense and a conscience mentioned in the book noted that he felt the man dumping his wife due to her illness (and his also having found another woman) was wrong, Dreamer rationalizes the behavior by putting the blame on the man criticizing the act, noting that she wondered how he'd "betrayed his own soul in his life" for worry of what others would think. Nice cop out.

Well, Oriah (and what were you smoking when you made your name up?), here's what I think: You have found a way to make money by appealing to those who are seeking excuses for their amoral behavior. Ironically, these are usually the people with the most money, so one would assume you'll be well set for life. An author you a not. More like a snake oil saleswoman for snakes.

Rating:
Summary: What love?
Review: I really loved this poem. I liked the book as well, probably more than two stars worth, because there are some decent meditations at the end of each chapter and the writing is honest if not poetic. My concern is with the author, who relates her philosophy based on experiences in her own life, and shares with us the seemingly endless relationships and marraiges she has gone through, at the expense of herself, her mates, and her children.
"I want to know if you will be there for me, always. That you will not run away during times of hardship. That you will accept me for who I am, and allow for changes I can and will make. I want to know that you will share the toil of being together, and understand that it is working through transitions where true growth can occur."
Oriah claims to have an intimate connection with nature, and her children, though her connections are without responsibility. It is as though she looks at nature through a looking glass, intimacy as pleasure alone, never really accepting her part in the process(es). It is a very narcissistic view of self, love, and being. I would love to know what she actually is looking for in her relationships, why they keep falling apart, and perhaps even how the men in her life have failed her.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious
Review: Like others, I knew the poem before I read this book. It was disappointing to read this book because it seemed so pretentious, full of pretty phrases that had as little depth as the reflection of the moon in a teaspoon. Much of it seemed more like a justification for failure than an attempt to live life with some meaning. Not to mention, much of what she's written here is repeated (in a more coherent way) in "The Dance."

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual Journey to the Edges of Emotion to Find Your Core!
Review: Ms. Oriah Mountain Dreamer has created a pathway beyond the comforable and the mundane into that which challenges and repels you. By addressing the edges of your personality and sensitivities, you can build on and extend your awareness and your reality in honest ways that better fit your inner self. The book is propelled from the author's emotionally intense vision of her life as expressed in this question: "Did I love well?"

Although her personal examples are simply there to help your own journey, their poignancy touched me deeply. If you are like me, you will admire the honesty and openness of her sharing. Ms. Dreamer has had two failed marriage and many failed relationships. She has had friends who experienced horrible personal setbacks. You will be seared by the pain, the truth, and the beauty in these experiences. And you will be the better for the vicarious experience.

Above all, this book is a call to have courage, courage to go beyond the comfortable into the important. Because of the examples chosen and her personal perspective, this book will probably speak more eloquently to many women than to many men.

The book is broken down into the statement of her invitation to follow her spiritual path by dealing with longing, fear, sorrow, joy, betrayal, beauty, failure, commitment, and fire to develop the deep sustenance to allows you to go to your true inner home. Each section contains personal experiences of her point, and ends with valuable meditation exercises to help you find your own "truth" in these areas.

Although the book sounds like another New Age tract, it is actually anti-New Age in many ways . . . especially in favoring emotional and physical reality over spiritual vagueness.

Here is a little of what she has to say on these subjects:

Accepting the Invitation: " . . . [Y]ou will experience, not just read about, the ache, the sorrow, the joy, the courage, the peace . . . ."

The Longing: "This is what I ask for: intimacy with myself, others, and the world . . . ."

The Fear: "We are afraid we will not be enough." " . . . [D]esire . . . brings the ecstasy of falling more deeply in love with my own life every day . . . ."

The Sorrow: "If we are strong enough to be weak enough, we are given a wound that never heals." "[That wound] is the gift that keeps the heart open."

The Joy: "The enemy of joy is the litany of 'not good enough' . . . ."

The Betrayal: "Sometimes, to choose life, we must break agreements; sometimes we must keep them although they are hard to keep."

The Beauty: " . . . [G]ratitude expands my ability to receive beauty." "It is what pulls us towards life."

The Failure: " . . . [O]ften an attempt to avoid the paralysis of shame."

The Commitment: " . . . [F]eed the children when [they] thought they could not."

The Fire: "[D]ifficult to keep our hearts open, to feel the fear and pain."

Finding Our Way Home: "Are you willing to meet yourself and not turn away from what you are?"

As you can see, Ms. Dreamer sets a high standard, but one that you will probably be proud to match.

I particularly recommend the meditations in the book. My own meditation routine repeats the same process. I found it rewarding to use different methods. Many new thoughts occurred to me as a result. It was a deeply moving experience in each case.

After you have finished your spiritual journey with this book as a guide, I suggest that you write out your own examples to match these topics from your own experience. This will make the material more accessible, especially if loving well is not your core reason for being.

Be yourself, in more ways and more fully!

Rating:
Summary: Guide Posts Along A Spiritual Path
Review: The poem changed my life! Its energy first came to me 2-1/2 years ago and I was mesmerized by its content and exasperated by its challenges.

After first discovering the poem, I must have read it 30 times, over and over and over again. But each time I read it, I could feel myself becoming angrier and angrier because I could not answer "yes" to a single challenge.

But I was hooked and the power of the poem began to work on me. From then on, when I encountered fear and pain along my path, and felt myself trying to "hide it, fade it or fix it", my mind and spirit drew upon its wisdom...and I grew. I gave myself permission to "risk looking like a fool for love...for the adventure of being alive". I now "look for beauty every day and try to source...life from its presence". I let myself "dance with wildness and let the ecstacy fill me" to the tips of my fingers and toes. But most of all, when my life experiences those momentary pauses, those deep breathes and sighs between social heartbeats, when I am alone with myself, I "truly like the company" I keep in those empty moments.

Each chapter is based upon Oriah's own experiences, but I could feel "me" as the book's subject and magically relate my experiences to the wisdom and challenges of the poem. The poem and book so deftly drew me into the process and importance of life.

It is a New Age Zen. It is simple, it is profound...it is undiluted wisdom.